


However Big, However Small

by jimmythemystic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Brian Banner's A+ Parenting, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Bruce Feels, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2019-11-04 05:09:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17892086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimmythemystic/pseuds/jimmythemystic
Summary: After a lab accident, Tony finds a De-aged science bro!





	1. Chapter 1

Tony yawns, looking out the skyscraper window and trying diligently to ignore the presenter who is attempting to convince him of... well. He's sure there's some point to this presentation, otherwise Pepper wouldn't have insisted he show up. He absentmindedly gazes over the presenter's suit, slightly wrinkled in a way that tells Tony that the man probably ironed it himself in his hotel this morning, and smiles inwardly as he takes in the sheen of sweat on the man's face. He seems cowed being in Tony's presence, which he needn't have worried about, since Tony isn't even paying attention.

Silence falls over the room, and Tony realizes the man has asked him a question. Glancing at Pepper, he finds that she's looking expectantly at him, with a smirk on her face. _Ah, so she WAS paying attention, and isn't going to cover for his lapse in concentration. Typical._ As he mentally reviews the last few seconds, Tony's StarkWatch alarm goes off. A lab explosion. 

_Oh thank God,_ Tony thinks as he taps the alarm away. He gifts the presenter with a Tony Stark Patented apologetic smile.

"I'm so sorry, but I've got to run. There's a lab emergency. I'm sure you understand. Pepper here will be more than happy to answer your questions and see what we can do." 

He shoots a hopeful glance at Pepper, who frowns at him questioningly, but nods. Giving her a thankful nod, Tony takes his leave. Tapping his watch again, his Iron Man suit materializes around him and he takes to the skies. 

"Fri, update. What's going on in the lab? Was it Bruce? Oh I hope it was Bruce, I'll never let him live this down!"

Lab explosions aren't exactly a rare occurrence, but normally Tony is the one making the explosions. Tony smiles as he remembers the fondly exasperated looks on Bruce's face as Tony made yet another explosion just a few days ago. Hey, it wasn't his fault Dum-E never utilizes his fire extinguisher correctly! 

"Boss, I believe Dr. Banner could use your assistance, as he is in considerable distress."

Tony swears. 

"Code Green?"

"No, Boss. You're gonna have to see this for yourself,"  
Friday says mysteriously. 

Worry intensifying, Tony boosts the thrusters and jets towards the Tower.

What could have possibly happened? Bruce is the calm one, he's never one for "Distress", except for the Big Guy, of course. Tony swears again, thinking about what could have happened to his friend

The Tower landing couldn't come fast enough and Tony literally flies down to the lab, still in full armor. It never hurts to be prepared, especially with the Big Guy a possibility. As he approaches the lab, the first thing Tony notes is that it's partially on fire. Dum-E is whirring, beeping frantically with his fire extinguisher on full blast. 

"Friday, turn on the sprinklers. Where's Bruce?"

Stepping out of the Iron Man suit, Tony looks around for his lab partner. Friday lights up a corner of the lab, and Tony hears soft whimpering. He strides forward and peers around the tables and debris, heart pounding in his chest. What he sees makes him gasp out loud. A tiny child, with his hands wrapped around his knees, is crying inconsolably.

"...Bruce?"

The child looks up, tears in his big brown eyes. "W-who are you?"

Tony swears yet again


	2. Chapter 2

The child looks up, tears in his big brown eyes. "W-who are you?"

Tony takes in the small child before him; kid looks to be about 5 or 6 years old, thin and small, just like Tony had been at that age, with a mess of dark curly hair. He is the perfect picture of a little Bruce Banner, or at least how Tony had imagined a little Bruce would look. Somehow he is wearing clothes that fit him perfectly, despite the fact Tony is sure he was forty years older and three feet taller less than an hour ago. What could have happened in here, how would this kind of thing even be possible? The only person who has the answers is unfortunately now the scared child in front of him. The child in question is still looking at Tony, obviously terrified, maybe of the fire that's being put out, maybe of being somewhere that is obviously unfamiliar to him, so Tony crouches down and puts on his best "Little Kid Friendly" smile.

"My name is Tony, your name is Bruce, right?"

He gently reaches out a hand, intending to touch the little guy's shoulder, pull him into a half-hug maybe, like Tony would with adult Bruce when he comes down from a Hulk-Out and he's too tired to resist. This Bruce, however, flinches massively and begins crying in earnest. Witnessing Bruce try and make himself as tiny as possible while as far away from Tony as possible, Tony realizes he has made a mistake. 

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" 

Bruce wails and hides his small face from Tony, who immediately retracts his hand, stunned. Tony rocks back on his heels, brain whirring at around one million miles an hour. Clearly little Bruce is a whole bunch different than Adult Bruce. He thinks back to what he knows about Bruce's childhood, which is next to nothing. Bruce is very quiet and reserved about his past as an adult, and as a matter of friendly respect, Tony has never looked into it. Based on the looks he's getting right now, it looks like their might be another reason beyond privacy that Bruce never talks about what his childhood years were like. Or maybe that's just Tony projecting. Good old Howard, causing Tony to question every flinch of another person. Surely a kid as sweet and innocent as Bruce surely had been, surely Brian wouldn't have ever... _Ah, that's a question for another time. Right now, take care of little Science Bro._ Feeling a surge of compassion, and suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to get this new little Bruce to trust him, Tony leaves his hands near the ground, by his side, and speaks softly to him.

"Buddy, it's okay. I don't know what you think you did, but everything is okay. I just want to make sure that you aren't hurt."

Tony pauses, looking him up and down for injuries. The lab did explode, after all.

"You're not hurt, are you?"

Bruce raises his head the tiniest bit and stares at Tony, no less terrified but looking absolutely confused. He slowly shakes his head.

_Is it wrong to think he's absolutely adorable, even though the little dude is really upset?_

_Yeah, probably._

Tony keeps a steady eye contact with Bruce, trying not to freak the little guy out any more than he already is. The lab is still smoking, though FRIDAY and Dum-E have put out the actual flames. There's chemicals and moving parts and experiments that could be in various stages of unstable. As it is now, it's no place to figure out what happened to Bruce. He's got to somehow convince Bruce to leave the lab with him, who knows what his adult counterpart was working on in here, but he'll never find out if he can't get Bruce to calm down somewhere quiet where Tony can think. Carefully, Tony reaches out his hand, palm up, not threatening, for Bruce to take.

"Bruce, buddy, would you mind coming with me out of the lab? It might be a little dangerous in here and I'd like us to go somewhere safer until we get some things figured out. Is that okay?"

Eyeing the lab, and then Tony, Bruce warily starts to reach out to take Tony's hand. 

At just that particular moment, Dum-E drops his fire extinguisher with a large BANG, and begins beeping sadly in distress as the extinguisher rolls away. Bruce's reaction is instant: he yanks his hand back at the noise and jumps up, moving his small hands to cover his ears, and makes a frantic break for the lab door, blowing right past Tony, right through the path of the smoking section of the lab.

"Bruce, be careful!"

The words are out of Tony's mouth before he can stop them, and his yell causes Bruce to jump and turn back to look at Tony in alarm. He just has time to see a look of pure dread in Bruce's eyes before the little boy's momentum causes him to bump heavily into a table containing adult Bruce Banner's chemical experiments, which start to fall. 

It all seems to happen in slow motion, the bottles and chemicals rattling, tipping and knocking together.

Glass beakers cracking, and spilling their contents, onto the table, in the air flying towards an already petrified child.

Liquids and semi-solids mixing. A spark as two or more flammable and "Should Never Be Mixed" liquids hit each other.

Tony's heart stops.

The lab explodes for the second time that day, a hot fireball forming and igniting in an instant, debris flying through the air, singing the hair on Tony's arms as the heat hits his face.

A scream, high pitched, pained, and wailing. 

It's a sound that is somehow everything Tony never knew he feared and a sound he hopes he never hears again as long as he lives.

"BRUCE!!"


	3. Chapter 3

Tony blinks his eyes open, a headache already raging. He registers through blurry sight what appear to be.. flames? Something seems wrong about that, but Tony can't put his finger on it. The sound of sobbing draws his attention, even over FRIDAY's blaring alarms. Who is even crying? It all comes back in a rush. Bruce, his lab partner and best friend, turned into a child. Little Bruce running from fear. The explosion. Tony jerks into fully conscious panic. "BRUCE?!" He sits up, body screaming at the sudden change and telling Tony to take better care of it, but Tony doesn't care. He only cares about one thing right now. And that thing is Bruce Banner. 

The lab is in flames, purple and yellow and green in a way that tells Tony that there are chemicals in it, that the air might be unsafe to breathe. Extending a hand, Tony calls to his suit, scanning with his limited vision already for his young lab partner. The suit engages with a silky smooth click, and his vision mechanics come online. FRIDAY, bless her, outlines a small figure a short distance from Tony, curled into a ball and heaving, with sobs or pain or the inability to breathe, Tony doesn't know. "FRI! Engage Parker Luck protocol!" FRIDAY has not yet had to use this protocol. Nothing like a trial by fire, literally. Ever since Tony had started inviting Peter Parker to join him and Bruce in the lab, he had taken note that Peter was both very energetic and very distractable. So in case of Peter ever causing a lab explosion, Tony had ensured there were protocols to protect both Peter and Bruce. 

A smaller Iron Man helmet flies and attaches itself to the small boy a few feet away, fire retardant rains from the ceiling, and a huge fume hood descends and starts pulling toxins from the air. At the same time, Tony forces the suit to carry him forward and scoop the now helmeted child into his arms. The glass walls surrounding the lab have blown out, which is lucky since Tony immediately flies through them, cradling little Bruce in his arms. Finally Tony registers that FRIDAY is talking to him. "Boss? I've called Dr. Helen Cho, and she is on the way to the Tower as we speak. Should I initiate lab lockdown protocol?" Tony affirms as he clears the floor and lands, disengaging the suit and trying to triage the little boy in his arms. 

Bruce is sobbing, and Tony pulls him closer, which seems to soothe and frighten Bruce in equal parts. He is littered with burns, but none of them seem life threatening at first glance, and there is glass sticking out of the little boy's skin in multiple places. He is also holding his left arm at an awkward angle. This is so outside of Tony's paygrade. Hurt little kids is not something Tony has ever dealt with hands on or ever wanted to. Feeling kind of useless, Tony decides to start pulling some of the pieces of glass out of his young lab partner. "Bruce, buddy? Would you look at me?" Bruce obediently tears his hand away from his face, and looks at Tony. Tony feels his heart ache as he looks at his friend, terrified and hurt and distrustful of him. "Buddy. I want to get some of this glass off of you, is that okay?" He doesn't know what he'll do if Bruce says no. But Bruce nods, still crying, but now that he is aware of Tony's attention, not making a sound or flinching. 

Bracing himself, Tony starts with the bigger chunks, some as big as a fourth inch wide, to his estimation. He can't even find words to say how Bruce's terrified lack of flinching or reaction makes Tony feel. He is literally pulling glass out of the little guy and there is no reaction other than continued hushed crying. He knows very little about Bruce as a kid, but that is something that clearly needs to change. Tony doesn't know what could have happened to Bruce as a child to make him this distrustful and pain tolerant, but he does take a moment to curse the fact that Brian Banner is already dead and Tony can't take this out on him personally. "FRIDAY, update on Dr. Cho?" He tries to stay as calm as possible. Kids need calm, right? Bruce, however, freaks out the moment Tony speaks. "No, no no please don't!" Bruce's voice breaks and he stares Tony down with the intensity of a hunted animal. "No what, buddy? I need a doctor to look at you and make sure we are both okay." Bruce rips himself out of Tony's grasp and tries to run. Only he can't make it that far and trips before even taking a step. Tony catches his right arm and sits him down. "Bruce. Talk to me right now, bud." 

He doesn't know what he is hoping for, Bruce to suddenly not be scared or to open up, but what he receives is a sudden resurgence of tears. "No doctors. They'll take me away. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please no doctor" the plea in Bruce's voice leaves Tony desperate to calm him and to please him. But what can he do? Tony can't fix broken bones, and Bruce clearly has at least one. Tony himself may have a concussion. "If I promise you I'll stay the whole time will you let the doctor take care of us? I'm hurt too, and I don't think I can fix it all, buddy. I'm sorry. We need some help." Tony fixes Bruce with his best puppy dog stare which, while it never worked with Pepper, has an 85% success rate with Bruce's adult self. Bruce looks Tony over, and so does Tony, as he realizes he himself has glass and cuts all over him also. Yeah, they really need Helen. 

A nod is all the answer Tony receives. It is all he needs though, and Helen Cho enters the room. Briskly taking in the situation, she looks at Tony. "Mr. Stark. What have you done this time?"


End file.
